Reflections and comments on all aspects of Catholic and Human Life.
"THE FIRST LAW OF HISTORY IS NOT TO DARE UTTER FLASEHOOD; THE SECOND, NOT TO FEAR TO SPEAK THE TRUTH." attributed to Pope Leo XIII

Wednesday, November 02, 2016

THE AMERICAN ELECTION: AN EXERCISE IN SELF-MUTILATION

A couple of
months ago, during what seems an exhausting, stressful, never ending American
election cycle, friends from the USA wrote begging prayer for their deeply
troubled, self-mutilating country.

Ever since
then this essay has been on and within my heart but every idea I came up with
was rejected as being either finger wagging, vitriolic, smug, partisan – even
though as a Canadian, obviously, I am not among the American electorate – or, I
confess, pietistic.

Then
unexpectedly yesterday clarity because not only the Gospel was the Beatitudes
but I encountered someone who embodies the fundamental weakness both within
left leaning and right leaning political parties/governments in modern
democracies and why democratic governments, having caved and continuing to cave
into the entitlement mindset, which poisons everyone and everything it touches,
is devouring democracy as fiercely as terminal cancer devours human beings.

I had just
left the light filled, warm, joyful rectory of a brother priest where we had
enjoyed cake and coffee to celebrate the parish secretary’s birthday.

Stepping
out into the cold wind and heavy wet snow, I walked the couple of blocks to the
bus stop, noticing as I approached a middle-aged woman, not dressed for the
weather, sitting in a wheel chair.

She
motioned to me to come closer begging for money and a smoke as “It is my
birthday.”

Taking care
of the material request was simple but I could tell by her eyes what she truly
hungered for, and so wished her a Happy Birthday and gave her a blessing.

Suddenly
she was beaming and radiated with her smile gratitude she had been spoken with,
seen as a real person.

That
illuminated my heart about why I see the United States in this election cycle as
self-mutilating, why I am profoundly concerned this will not end on November
the 8th and why I am equally concerned modern democracies are
eroding from within, irrespective if the governing party be from the left or
the right, and see increasing and extremely dangerous anger and ballot box –
for now – rebelliousness among the populations.

The clear
majority of modern democracies trace their history back to a time when the
world was divided between Christendom and that part of the human family where
the Gospel had yet to penetrate.

Since WWII
there has been, and continues to be, a determined rejection of and assault upon
all things Christian, in Europe and North America as a matter of government
policy, aided and abetted by media in all its forms and the so-called
intelligentsia.

Those
elites have become tone deaf to the Vox Populi because such elites are
incapable of authentic recognition that every human being is one like myself.

Granted,
what follows right here is an over simplification, but stresses the point:for the rightist people are incapable
of……..[put your own word here if you are a rightist]…………..for the leftist
people don’t know that this…………..[again if a leftist insert your own label]…is
best for them.

Democracy
is only authentic and effective if it is centrist, via media, the middle way
which, for example, neither imposes a religion NOR deliberately attacks
religious belief and expression.

It is only
in the mature centre, where can be a found a balance between the Gospel of Life
and the exercise of authentic freedom of choice in all matters of faith and
morals [this presumes a maturity that accepts responsibility for the
consequences of choosing] that the clear voice of the people, as individual
persons and the communal Vox Populi can be heard and what is being said
discerned and responded to.

The current
election cycle in the USA, with each contender for president seemingly
inexhaustible in their capacity for other bashing and lying, has a cacophony of
angry voices, megaphoned by profit driven and agenda driven media on both
sides, creating an atmosphere scarily reminiscent of the lead up to the
original American Civil War.

The woman,
minus warm clothing, sitting in her wheelchair on a cold and wet snowy
afternoon of her birthday, simply wanted to be heard, seen, recognized as a
human being.

When
governments, politicians, indeed any of us, fail to see other as one like
myself, fail to respond to the basic need to be recognized as, and spoken with,
listened to, as a person worthy of love, dignity, irrespective of race,
religion, status, political leaning, then the heart of such of our brothers and
sisters is wounded ever more severely by such rejection and our failure to see
them, hear them, deepens the wound.

Increasingly
so wounded some retreat into despair, depression, addictions, while others
become extremists of all sorts.

Beneath the
veneer of a democratic election, and dangerously so, within the American
population is an ever-increasing segment of the population alienated to a
dangerously explosive juncture, not least because both political parties have
chosen as candidate someone clearly unable to stop by our sister in her wheel
chair and see her, hear her, speak to her love’s code word: Happy Birthday!

4 comments:

"It is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects — military, political, economic and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden — that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time." - CS Lewis, Mere Christianity